Meet Our SCN8A Superheroes
SCN8A Stories
Click on each family collage below to hear their story
Stories from SCN8A parents who opened up to share some of the most challenging parts of having a child – or losing a child – with SCN8A. These stories were recorded as part of a submission to the Food and Drug Administration about the urgent need for more targeted treatments for those living with SCN8A. We hope these stories illuminate the struggles of life with SCN8A-related disorders.
The International SCN8A Alliance is bringing hope to families that feel like they have no place to turn. Families desperately want life-altering treatments. Listen as an SCN8A mom as she shares her daily pressing fears. “I envision telling his sister that Elliott’s gone. It scares the heck out of me. But he’s so fragile that there’s a distinct reality that it could happen to him – at any moment.”
Too many children with SCN8A aren’t given a chance to grow and prosper. To live a life more than lying on a bed, or lying on a mat, getting fed through a tube. He deserves so much more. All of our children deserve quality of life.
- Gabi, Elliott's mother
“This is Connor’s kitchen and Connor’s medicine cabinet. No 10-year-old should need their entire cabinet in the kitchen for medications. But when you have difficulty treating epilepsy, you do…We implore you to invest in an area giving Connor a specific medication for SCN8A.
- Krista, Connor’s mother
“Our children are dying. Our children are dying from this disease. This is a terrible life-sucking disease. It sucks the life out of our children. Our children are suffering. Our children are dying. Our children are seizing. Our children are in pain. Our children’s stomachs don’t empty out. My son can’t run and play with his brothers and sisters. Something needs to be done. I don’t know what research or what medicine, but we need to have a cure. I am begging whoever is listening to this to please work your hardest at finding something for our children.”
- Tammy, Liam's mother
“We spent a majority of the first two and a half years in and out of the hospital, sometimes twice a day and sometimes a week at a time, countless ambulance rides and airlifts. No child should have to endure a life like this.”
- Alisha, Clayton's mother
“At 13 months Jake was seizing uncontrollably. Nothing could stop them and we were told to be prepared to lose him… 2-3 months later we were told Jake had an SCN8A mutation and we should try all the sodium channel drugs. They provided some help where we could go a day without a seizure…but one day without a seizure is not life…Watching your child suffer endlessly is not life…the endless drugs that I had to give him to stop seizing caused such detrimental side effects …that were often worse than the seizures…I was at a place where my son was suffering every minute of his life that I had to let him go. No parent should ever have to choose that.
That is why new medicines must be in place. I’m asking you to help us – to help children like my son – to help the future children. I never want another mother to live what I lived. I never want another child to have to endure what my child did.”
- Britani, Jake's mother Jake passed away at age 3 in 2016
“He filled our lives with joy. He made us smile. My children do smile without him, we do, but we are not the same. There’s a giant piece of us all missing…This is a tough mutation and a tough disease. I really hope there are medications out there that can treat the actual channel and not just the symptoms. And that there are better outcomes.”
- Elizabeth, Declan's mother Declan passed away at age 6 in 2018
Receiving a diagnosis of SCN8A can be overwhelming and likely leaves you with countless unanswered questions. While sadly much remains unknown about the basic science of SCN8A, its treatment, or prognosis, a great deal has been learned since its discovery by Dr. Hammer in 2011. We have an ongoing commitment to help disseminate and translate new understanding of how to best treat this complex, important and very diverse disorder.
Sign up to get a copy of our pamphlet on “A Guide for Newly Diagnosed SCN8A families. The guide outlines many specific steps that can ease your journey. This compilation of advice Dr. Hammer, leading SCN8A clinicians, and from families like you shares some strategies to get your arms around this frightening diagnosis and getting some peace of mind that you are getting the best care for your child.
Our single most important message is that you are not alone. All of us have been there and have lived through the fear, anxiety, frustration, anger, denial, despair, and grief. The journey, how you feel, and what you choose to focus on will be uniquely yours – but it will be important to remember that other families are out there and want to welcome you to our intimate community of fellow SCN8A parents and caregivers.
FDA Response to Our Submission in Support of SCN8A Drug Development
If you have any questions or would like to be in touch with us, please contact Gabi at gabi@wishesforelliott.com.
The stories that were conveyed, including your own, Dr. Hammer’s, and the other families who shared their comments, are deeply moving, and I am tremendously grateful for your sharing them.
We are eager to work with IND [Investigational New Drug] sponsors to facilitate the development of treatments for this condition. The empiric data that you have generated clearly reinforce the unmet need for effective treatments. I will say that I have hope that the pace of such development programs will accelerate as we see rapid advancements in our ability to target the underlying pathophysiology in this and other genetic epilepsy syndromes.
– Nick Kozauer, Director, Division of Neurology II Office of Neuroscience
Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the Food and Drug Administration
